Advanced Thermal Control for Exploration (ATC-Explore-STUDY)

As NASA plans for the expanded presence of systems on the Moon and Mars, it is important to understand the novel challenges presented by operating on planetary bodies. One of the greatest challenges of operating on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars is the ability to maintain operable temperatures for all of the infrastructure located on the surface. The challenges are particularly difficult due to the extreme ranges of environmental conditions on the surface and wide range of operating conditions for the planned surface systems. The vast parametric space of environmental conditions and use cases makes it difficult to determine the critical technologies worth investment in to enable mission success on the Lunar and Martian surface.  To support the continuous and growing presence of surface assets on the Lunar and Martian surfaces, the study aims to investigate a wide range of heat rejection technologies. These heat rejection technologies will be assessed against the vast range of surface assets, each with unique requirements, assumptions, and applications. This ensures that the technologies being assessed are relevant to the future goals of the Moon 2 Mars architecture. This study aims to focus specifically on heat rejection capabilities across the different missions (Lunar and Mars) as well as the different surface elements. The assessment will develop both the ground rules, assumption, and constraints that bound each of these mission and surface elements and compare them against a database of the possible heat rejection approaches including the use of architectural approaches (e.g., regeneration) and specific hardware (e.g., radiators, fluids) needed to meet requirements. The specific project approach includes developing a database of the different heat rejection technologies and surface elements and their associated parameters (e.g., performance, operational temperature, magnitude of heat rejection needed, etc.); develops both qualitative and quantitative figures of merit based on subject matter expert input to assess the different technologies against; and performs parametric based analysis to investigate at a high-level the performance of different heat rejection technologies relative to all of the surface elements' operational space.

Due to the challenges associated with developing a wide surface infrastructure to enable sustained Lunar and Mars surface presence for future exploration missions, particularly in regard to maintaining operable temperatures, it becomes necessary to assess the current state-of-the art heat rejection technologies, existing (past or present) technology development from NASA's portfolio, as well as exploring untested or novel heat rejection ideas in order to inform the areas which show greater potential relative to the current Moon 2 Mars architecture. The project tasks and deliverables are intended to inform technology roadmaps and future technology portfolios, highlight existing gaps in understanding of the surface architectures or technology capability relative to them, and provide future surface element designers with different heat rejection technology approaches appropriate for their heat rejection needs (e.g., magnitude heat rejection, reliability or maintainability needs, etc.), expected environment, and vehicle type (e.g., mass, volume, or power constraints).​​ ATC-Explore-STUDY task benefits.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.